Android Mobiles

We are all but certain that HTC will unveiling the Legend next week at Barcelona.  There have been a handful of “in the wild” shots this week, leading us to believe the demo models are circulating and the handset maker is ready to show it off.  Unfortunately, they won’t be the first to release any official photos or specs. KPN, a telco in the Netherlands, has just gone live with a few images of the new device with the specs.

Granted, the pictures aren’t high resolution, they still do enough to whet our whistles. The specs are pretty much everything we’ve been expecting so far – 600MHz, Android 2.1, 5 megapixel camera, optical trackpad.   This appears to be a mid-range Android handset and a definite successor the Hero from last year.  Expect this on KPN sometime in early March!  No word on pricing as of yet.

Thanks to Nick from HTCSource for the heads up!

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has let slip a few details of another Android-based handset from Acer. The device will be a touch screen smart phone with quadband GSM, 850 / 1900 bands (AT&T), and A-GPS.   Considering the source, we also know it will have Bluetooth.  As we head into next week’s Mobile World Congress, we expect to see plenty of Android handsets announced. Perhaps Acer will drop a few more details on this one.

Source: Engadget

After more than a year of waiting, Garmin is set to show off their newly announced nuvifone A50 next week at Mobile World Congress.  As it turns out, the device is more GPS than phone.  Surprise!

The Android-powered A50 features a 3.5-inch,  HVGA capacitive touch screen, 4GB of built-in storage, Microsoft Exchange support, full GPS, and other navigation services built-in.  The touch only device also comes with an accelerometer, 3 megapixel camera, and the Android Market.  With a heavy dose of Garmin, it  includes an e-compass and their own cityXplorer maps, as well as real-time, location-relevant information like weather, traffic, fuel prices, safety cameras, and flight status.    Look for the A50 to arrive in Europe sometime in the first half of 2010.  Pricing and carriers have yet to be announced.

Even though CES was a huge coming out party last month, next week’s Mobile World Congress looks to be even bigger.  This is the event to attend if you are a handset maker with half a decent product line.  Anyone who is anyone will be in Spain next week showing off their coming devices.  Among those big names… HTC.

We’re nearly certain that HTC will unveil the Legend handset next week.  The heir apparent to the Hero, it maintains the look and feel of one of their most popular handsets of 2009 while bringing some new to the table.

The Legend was spotted a couple of times this week, giving us a pretty good look at the front and back sides.  We’re fans of the back design as it’s not your typical flush battery cover; We like the character it adds.

As we wait for the official announcement, here’s a few rumored specs.

• 3.2-inch HVGA AMOLED Touch Screen
• 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 Processor
• 5 megapixel camera with LED flash
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi, Magnetic Compass
• Quadband GSM / EDGE plus dualband HSPA
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 1300mAh battery

It gets harder and harder to stay on top of the Android phones coming down the pipeline.  Even on its own, HTC makes it difficult on us to keep out in front of the rumored handsets.  Today finds us adding another device to the list of potential Android smart phones.

The Scorpion is the latest to get the rumor treatment.  What’s special about this one?  For starters, it boasts a 1.5GHz processor on board.  Add Android 2.2 and WiMAX into the mix, and you have a recipe for one delicious phone. 

As to where this rumor got started.  AndroidSPIN was allegedly passed the build file for this upcoming handset with notes pertaining to the above specs and features.  As you look through the (easily created/duped) text, there are hints of them throughout.  As much as some of us would like to say this is faked, there are far more Android rumors that pan out than those that don’t.  We’re leaning in the direction of “this could be right”.

For what it’s worth, Qualcomm just unveiled the 1.5GHz processors last month.  We could be a long way off before seeing this arrive.  Also, neither Scorpion nor Olympian were among the names leaked in a previous Android build.

Source: MobileCrunch

Image Source: Flickr

The guys over a PocketNow got some photos of the upcoming HTC Incredible for Verizon. It will be running Android 2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI, a Snapdragon processor with 256 MB of RAM. The display resolution is a 3.5-3.7″ WVGA. It does not have a trackball, but an optical mouse. There are two LED flash on the back of the phone. Hopefully when can get more about this in the next few days.

Source: PocketNow

I never get tired of talking about the awesome stuff that Eugene has his hands in. G1 and myTouch 3G owners can now make their devices go over the previous top speed of 528 MHz. In the pic you can see that Eugene now has the processor passing up 600 MHz like yesterday’s news. According to him, the processor can run stable at 628 MHz. Leave it to Eugene to do what “they” said couldn’t be done before. Now he’s shooting for 800 MHz, but unsure about the stability. Possibly more later …

Thanks Eugene!

Update: New pic added, 780 MHz seems to be the max this CPU can handle on battery power. Good work Eugene.

The Motorola handset we’ve recently been reporting on, the Zeppelin, will be arriving next month on T-Mobile.  A leaked T-Mobile roadmap that covers the next few months shows the Zeppelin launching March10th with the new name of Cliq XT.

Everything we’ve seen lately indicates the phone is virtually identical to the Cliq, save for the physical keyboard.  While it’s likely to arrive with Android 1.5 under the hood, Motorola probably readying the same 2.1 update they’ll be pushing out to the Cliq.  We don’t know of any prices yet, but we’re pretty sure it will be in the same $180-$200 ball park that most of T-Mobile’s lineup of Android phones – at least initially. We’ve seen pictures of this phone in both black and titanium, so it’s likely the Cliq and Cliq XT will share the same colors.

The rumored/expected specs include:

• 3.1- inch touch screen HVGA (480×320)
• 5 megapixel camera with autofocus
• Qualcomm MSM7201 528 MHz processor
• 512 MB flash ROM, 256 MB RAM
• WiFi 802.11 b/g, GPS, Bluetooth
• MOTOBLUR (Android 1.5)

The Motorola handset we’ve recently been reporting on, the Zeppelin, will be arriving next month on T-Mobile.  A leaked T-Mobile roadmap that covers the next few months shows the Zeppelin launching March10th with the new name of Cliq XT.

Everything we’ve seen lately indicates the phone is virtually identical to the Cliq, save for the physical keyboard.  While it’s likely to arrive with Android 1.5 under the hood, Motorola probably readying the same 2.1 update they’ll be pushing out to the Cliq.  We don’t know of any prices yet, but we’re pretty sure it will be in the same $180-$200 ball park that most of T-Mobile’s lineup of Android phones – at least initially. We’ve seen pictures of this phone in both black and titanium, so it’s likely the Cliq and Cliq XT will share the same colors.

The rumored/expected specs include:

• 3.1- inch touch screen HVGA (480×320)
• 5 megapixel camera with autofocus
• Qualcomm MSM7201 528 MHz processor
• 512 MB flash ROM, 256 MB RAM
• WiFi 802.11 b/g, GPS, Bluetooth
• MOTOBLUR (Android 1.5)

In just a few short days, T-Mobile is expected to release the updated version of their myTouch 3G handset. Among the notable changes in design are a 3.5mm headphone jack and more memory.  A leaked internal screenshot for T-Mobile indicates a software enhancement will be joining the party too.

The folks over at TmoToday have a screenshot shows the myTouch 3G with 3.5mm headphone  jack (catchy title) will also offer the unique soft keyboard, Swype.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Swype works by dragging your finger from letter to letter, rather than pecking them.  It’s rather unconventional, but we hear it’s pretty awesome.We’re not sure what kind of learning curve it has, however, it appears it could be a preferred way of typing.

It’s interesting to see something like this being bundled with a handset, but it does help differentiate it from other Android phones.  At least out of the box. Swype also comes preloaded on the Samsung Omnia II.

Fun Fact: Swype was founded by the same guy (Cliff Kushler) who invented T9 texting.

Thanks for the heads up, Jim!